2. Macbeth by William Shakespeare

3. Emerging Themes Fate v. Free will Power Gender roles

4. Act I: Emerging Themes Fate v. Free will Who has control over Macbeth’s decisions and actions (The witches, Fortune, Macbeth himself, Lady Macbeth)? Scene 1: “Fair is foul and foul is fair”? (Witches 1.1.12) Scene 2: “For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)/Disdaining Fortune…” (Cap. 1.2.19-20) Scene 3: “If chance will have me King, why/ chance may crown me/ Without my stir.” (Mac. 1.3.165-167) Scene 4: “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step/On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap/…Let not light see my black and dark desires” (Mac. 1.4. 55-59)

5. Fate v. Free will (Continued) Scene 5: “…and you shall put/This night’s great business into my dispatch,/ Which shall to all our nights and days to come/ Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom…To alter favor ever is to fear./Leave all the rest to me.” (L.Mac. 1.5.78-85) Scene 7: “We will proceed no further in this business.” (Mac. 1.7.35) Scene 7: “But screw your courage to the sticking place,/ And we’ll not fail.” (L. Mac. 1.7.70-71) Scene 7: “I am settled…False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” (Mac. 1.7.92-95)

6. Act I: Emerging Themes Power How does power, or the desire for power, influence Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s actions? “What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won.” (Dun. 1.2.77) “Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor!/ The greatest is behind/…Do you not hope your children shall be kings,/ When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me/ Promised no less to them?” (Mac. 1.3.133- 139) “…Stars, hide your fires! Let not see my black and deep desires!” (Mac. 1.4.58-59)

7. Power (Continued) “…Come, you spirits/ that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty!/…Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor!/ Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!/…This ignorant present, and I feel now/ The future in the instant.” (L. Mac. 1.5.45-65) “…I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself/ And falls on the other-” (Mac. 1.7.26-29) “And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man.” (L. Mac. 1.7.57-58)

8. Act I: Emerging Themes Masculinity v. Femininity What qualities are considered masculine versus feminine? Which represent strength and which represent weakness? Scene 3: “You should be women,/And yet your beards forbid me to interpret/That you are so.” (1.3.48-50) Scene 5: “…Come, you spirits/ that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty!/…” (L. Mac. 1.5.46-49)

9. Masculinity v. Femininity (Cont.) Scene 6: “Fair and Noble hostess” (Dun. 1.6.28) Scene 7: “Besides, this Duncan/Hath borne his faculties so meek…that his virtues/Will plead like angels…And pity, like a naked new born babe…” (Mac. 1.7.17-22) Scene 7: “And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man.” (L. Mac. 1.7.57-58)